Thursday, 31 May 2012

So I haven't been nearly as prolific on here as I was hoping. However my words have been put to very good use lately - 37, 000 of them are marching toward a population of penguins, and another few thousand are dealing with childhood nightmares.

So at least I've been working (and playing) with them.

But there's one little phrase that keeps cropping up lately that's really beginning to bother me.

This not only implies that you're an idiot, but a selfish, unthinking idiot.

Why? Why should simple pleasures be denied? Like, say, carrying a bag a different way from the other person who wants to tell you how to do it. Simple. Very, very simple.

And trivial.

There is nothing more likely to make you start acting like a child than being treated like one. And when you feel like you're being shoved back into that tiny chair, that tiny corner, you want to break that barrier and dip that person's pigtails in ink or hit them over the head with a text book.

Other people's standards. Where do you draw the line? How do you calmly stand in their way and say, "Yes, actually, I'm going to do what I want," without descending into a temper tantrum or the silent treatment? Or just repressing it altogether. And why is pleasing yourself, on such a basic, fundamental level, seen to be such a bad thing?